PennyWise & Millencolin In Argentina

Pennywise and Millencolin, held on March 22 at Groove, a “historic day of Punk Rock”

Opening the evening was the local band DA-SKATE, the hardcore punk band from Mercedes, who were celebrating their 20-year career, energetic and overwhelming.

The melodic hardcore of Canadian band MUTE warmed up the crowd for what was to come.

The Swedes Millencolin, celebrating nearly 30 years in the business, gave it all with their characteristic melodic and fast sound, provoking overwhelming mosh pits.

Pennywise was scheduled to arrive at 21, but there was a 15-minute delay. Not a big deal! 
When they came in scene, we saw the curtains open as Jim was standing in the center of the stage saying hi to everyone, then Fletcher and Randy at his sides, and Byron sitting on the drums, counting 4 to start the setlist with “As Long as We Can”, “Peaceful Day” and “My Own Country”, focusing on their 90’s era, the golden age of Skate Punk.
Even in one moment, Jim, introducing the band, said that they were from California, the same as Descendents, Circle Jerks, and Black Flag (and if we keep on counting, we easily find Bad Religion, Germs, Dead Kennedys, Offspring… whatever, it seems that California was the center of the American Punk scene back then).

Setlist continued with “It’s What You Do With It”, “Same Old Story” (a song that Jim dedicated to his father), “Just for You”, and “Straight Ahead”. Then, Fletcher said “f@ck” to every kind of authority, even the actual USA president Donald Trump, and made us all raise our hands with a middle finger up! So, the next song was pretty obvious to everyone (they were opening up the circle pit even before he said the track title): “F@ck Authority”, followed by “Unknown Road”.
After that, they suddenly wanted to play some classic songs by their colleague bands, such as NOFX and Bad Religion. They played “Bob”, “Kill All the White Men” and then, BR classic track “Do What You Want”, from 1988’s album “Suffer”, one of their favourites of all time, Jim said.
“Here it is, “Pennywise” by Pennywise from the album “Pennywise”, best song introduction ever haha.

After “Pennywise”, the following songs were “Yesterdays”, “Live While You Can”, “Perfect People”, and “Society”. Moments when the circle pits got bigger, as Fletcher kept on requesting to open it over and over!
“Living for Today” was dedicated to the memory of late bassist and co-founder Jason Thirsk, followed by “Broken”, and the Ben E. King song “Stand by Me”, which started pretty similar to the original one, and then evolved to a punkier way!
After that, they left the stage for an encore, which came sooner than later, when the crowd started chanting the “Bro Hymn” riff. The band showed up to give the people what they wanted. So, they ended their set with the classic Punk track that speaks about friendship!

Photos by Carlos Daly Aurenty

Review by Agustin Lopez

Produced by Noiseground